


Seeing Past My Broken Walls

by UntenableFutureGoals



Series: Darcy the Pretend Alpha [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, F/F, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multi, Omega Verse, One Shot, Pack Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-05-02 06:52:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19193905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UntenableFutureGoals/pseuds/UntenableFutureGoals
Summary: Alternate timeline (Making Soft Sounds AU): Darcy is hiding her status as an omega and pretending to be an alpha, but she runs out of her suppressant/scent masking and goes into heat. Jane turns out to be surprisingly helpful and convinces Darcy to let her mates know.





	1. Out of Stock

**Author's Note:**

> Short alternate timeline event from my other fic, Making Soft Sounds (1st work in this series), roughly set between chpts 11 and 12. I wanted to write a situation where Darcy found herself revealing her omega status to Jane.
> 
> This is a story that's sort of too long to call a one-shot, but ... I'm calling it that anyway. Hopefully this won't blow up too big.  
> ====

"What do you mean you don't have this in stock?" Darcy asked urgently. "Your website clearly shows that you do."

"I'm really sorry ma'am, but like I said, there was a problem with the shipping company—we won't get any more in till next week."

Darcy barely refrained from growling, but managed a passable approximation of a graceful acceptance of the pharmacist's apology, and then stalked out of the store. She'd been having trouble getting her hands on a replacement of her supplements—the very supplements that acted as a natural suppressant and also allowed any other status to smell like an alpha. Her supply had gotten lost on her trip with her boss and good friend Jane to her St. Louis conference on Weird Space Stuff—although Jane never liked Darcy's name for it—when the airline had lost Darcy's luggage.

The missing luggage actually didn't take too long to make an appearance, but when it did, it was horribly water-logged and somehow her bottle of supplements hadn't been closed all the way and had been completely ruined. Her clothes were mostly salvageable, and the airline had already reimbursed her with funds to replace her ruined clothes. Jane had also been great and really supportive, and had let her run off to try and replace her wardrobe instead of insisting that Darcy be with Jane at all her group meetings to take notes. It would have meant Jane would have to talk and try to take her own notes, which mostly meant that no notes would get taken at all—but Darcy had shown Jane how to use the voice recorder on her phone, so she'd at least be able to refer back to the talk later if she needed to.

The problem however, was not the clothes, but the missing supplements, which Darcy had not had access to for a full 36 hours now and had not been able to find anywhere in this godforsaken city to replace her supplements. Darcy was starting to feel the effects of missing her meds, and knew the signs of an approaching heat—a heat that Darcy had never had before, didn't know anything about. Darcy had always made it a habit to study up on alpha behaviors and culture, as that was her chosen cover, but she'd never bothered really learning about omegas, other than what little was taught in health ed in school.

Instead of actually managing to get anything done, Darcy had just spent the last few hours walking around a lot. When she left this latest pharmacy, and for the fourth time in an hour some alpha stopped to stare at her as she passed, seeming like they were going to follow her, Darcy made the decision to retreat back to the hotel. She would need to think of something else—maybe she could find a supplier online that could deliver in twenty-four hours? That would be cutting it really close to when the onset of a heat should be. From Darcy's research, omegas coming off long-term use of this suppressant usually had their heat hit about three days after stopping use of the supplement. Darcy was now at one and a half days since her last dose.

As Jane had done the last two days of the conference, she regularly checked in with Darcy to see how things were going, and she would sometimes ask for Darcy to be present at some specific meetings that were too important to miss the notes for, and then Darcy would stop her search to go to the conference center. Now that Darcy needed to confine herself to their hotel room, Darcy had to play off that she was feeling sick when Jane asked her to come down. Predictably, Jane wanted to know if Darcy needed anything and was generally very supportive, but Darcy couldn't ask Jane to help her with what she really needed, and so her text message replies to her boss were evasive.

And that was because Jane _didn't know_ that Darcy wasn't actually an alpha—no one did, and that was exactly how Darcy liked it. There was literally no one else alive on Earth that knew Darcy's true status, and Darcy even went so far as to deny any blood tests that involved status to keep it that way. So Darcy couldn't tell Jane, but ... if Darcy couldn't figure out a way to take care of this, it was going to become really obvious—and really quickly too, since a day and a half wasn't actually that much time.

Unfortunately for Darcy, she had little success in her online search as well. She did find a supplier who could ship to Darcy's hotel, but it would take three days. Darcy placed the order anyway, just in case some other method of getting the pills in a shorter term presented itself. It was starting to look less and less likely that that would happen now, with the evening of day 2 rapidly approaching. More unfortunately for Darcy, Jane had noticed Darcy's uncharacteristic responses to her questions and was genuinely concerned about how Darcy was faring, so she decided to come back from the conference early. Darcy heard the sounds of clacking at the hotel door, exactly like the way Jane usually propped her bag against the door in order to pull out her her keys, and Darcy immediately fled to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her just as Jane pulled open the hotel room door.

"Darcy?" Jane called out.

"Shitshitshitshit," Darcy said under her breath, then at a more normal volume called back, "I'm in the bathroom."

Jane's voice drew closer to the bathroom door. "Are you okay Darcy?"

"Yeah, just dandy, except for you know, being sick," Darcy said, voice strained. The door handle rattled.

"Darcy?"

"Uh, you can't come in here Jane," Darcy said, trying and failing to come up with an excuse or reason, her brain terrifyingly blank.

"Darcy ... do you have someone else over?" Jane asked, her voice clearly hesitant.

"Um, nope, nope just me." Darcy realized then that in her hurry to flee she'd left both her laptop and her phone on the bed where she'd been working, and was now trying to figure out what exactly she could do about ... anything while stuck inside a bathroom with no electronic device whatsoever. Also, what was she doing in the bathroom, should Jane ask. Maybe she could pretend to take a shower?

"Okay it just ... kinda smells like pre-heat omega in here," Jane said, sounding even more hesitant now. After a short pause, her boss continued, "You know if you were helping out an omega in pre-heat, that I would do everything in my power to help you, right? You can tell me anything and I'll try to support you."

"Jane," Darcy said, voice tortured, the desire to keep her secret warring with her desire to have someone help her. But would Jane still want to help Darcy, when it came out that everything that Darcy had ever told Jane about herself was actually a lie? That Darcy had been lying to _everyone_?

"Darcy," Jane said urgently against the door, trying the handle again. From the closeness of Jane's voice it was obviously the older woman was pressing herself up against the door now. "Please let me in. I can help whoever it is get through this, it's not something you have to do without help." When Darcy didn't reply for several seconds, Jane tried again. "Please Darcy, you need help. Let me help you."

Darcy sat against the counter, nearly in tears from frustration, feeling trapped, and finally the pleading in Jane's tone got to her. She stepped over and unlocked the bathroom door. Jane instantly had the door open and stepped inside quickly—quickly enough that it seemed that she didn't get a look around until after she was already inside with the door closed. Jane looked at Darcy, and then blinked around the bathroom. Darcy could tell her boss had expected there to be someone in here with her.

"It's just me," Darcy said in a small voice looking down, unwilling to meet Jane's eyes. She sighed heavily. "I just, uh, ... I'm out of my suppressants." Jane didn't say anything, and Darcy didn't want to look up, so as was Darcy's normal defense mechanism, she just kept talking. "They were in that bag that got lost, and you know it got waterlogged—well, my bottle of suppressants was apparently not closed all the way, because the entire batch was basically dissolved. I'm not sure if I'm desperate enough to try eating the sludgy residue that was left in the bottle though."

"No, you definitely shouldn't try taking that residue," Jane immediately said, now out of her shock. She stepped forward and pulled Darcy into a hug. "Oh Darcy," she said, rubbing a hand over Darcy's back.

"Ok, hugs are great," Darcy said in a watery voice, barely holding back tears, "but if you keep this up you're going to make me cry. My emotions are all over the fucking place and I _hate_ it."

Jane chuckled dryly and then pulled back, running a thumb over Darcy's cheek. "Well, you are certainly in pre-heat, because you smell pretty strongly of heat."

Darcy winced. "Yeah, I had a few alphas staring at me today or obviously thinking about approaching me while I was out trying to hunt down these supplements, so I decided I'd better get back here fast. I managed to find some online, but nothing can get here faster than three days, and that'll be way too late."

Nodding seriously, Jane said, "Yeah that's definitely way too late, but Darcy ... it might already be too late today. You smell pretty close to heat already, and if you're feeling emotional ... how's your ability to think right now? Are you feeling mentally dull?"

"Um, I feel like I have a head cold or am kinda high, honestly," Darcy said with a grimace.

"Yeah, I think it's probably too late already. We can try one of the emergency suppressants from the pharmacy, but they sometimes only delay a heat, not prevent one."

"Well, that's better than what I have now, which is nothing."

Putting a hand on Darcy's shoulder, Jane said, voice serious, "Darcy, I think you need to prepare yourself for the idea that this heat is coming and not you or I or anyone is going to be able to stop it."

Darcy stood still, frozen in shock against the bathroom cabinet. Her legs suddenly didn't want to hold her up anymore, and slowly Darcy slid down the front of the cabinet till she was sitting on the floor. "Jane," Darcy said, dejected and lost and pleading, "what am I going to do?"

Jane was down on the floor next to Darcy in a heartbeat, pulling the newfound omega into another hug, and as Darcy had warned earlier, the intern burst into tears in Jane's arms. The older omega rubbed Darcy's arms and back, murmuring reassurances that they could figure this out. When Darcy had mostly cried herself out, she lifted her head up off of Jane's shoulder and said wetly, "I told you hugs were going to make me cry."

Jane laughed. "At least you're still joking, so I know you're still you."

"Nope, no pod people here," Darcy joked, although she couldn't manage to smile at all while she did so. "Although that's exactly what a pod person would say, you know."

Jane grinned at the younger woman, stroked her hair a couple times in comfort, and then stood up from her crouch on the floor. "As far as what we should do about this, I think we should call in your mates—you have mates who are superpowered and/or part of a world-wide organization to support superheroes, and I think you should take advantage of that."

Darcy gaped up at Jane. "Call in Natasha?? Wh- No! We definitely can't do that!" Darcy protested strongly, spluttering.

"Darcy, you-"

"No, Jane! They can't know about this—no one can know about this," Darcy said urgently.

"Darcy, listen," Jane said persuasively, pulling Darcy up to her feet, "unless you want to sit in a government facility for emergency heats, or pay an enormous amount to this hotel to use their heat-room, you're going to have to ask for other people to help. And the government facility has an official record, probably the hotel too, about who stayed there and when. It'll be really hard to hide that later. At least your mates are people you trust." Darcy couldn't think of anything to say against that, so just grimaced and said nothing. "You _do_ trust Natasha, right?"

"Yes," Darcy said, without hesitation. "I'd trust her with my life."

"With your life, but ... not this?"

Darcy didn't say anything.

"And Maria?"

Maria was a different situation—she hadn't known Maria anywhere near as long as she'd known Natasha, but ....

"Yeah," Darcy said after some consideration. "Not as much as Natasha, but yeah, I trust her too."

"And you'd trust her with your life, but not this?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Okay okay, I get your point—I can trust them, okay. But then what?"

"Well, they can get you out of here for one, and get you back home, where even if you decline all help during your heat, you'll be taken care of and not have to worry about food or safety."

Darcy winced. She'd forgotten about the problem of alphas or betas finding in-heat omegas and them insisting on being allowed to 'help' the omega. Darcy curled her lip slightly in discomfort at the thought. "Yeah, okay, I could go back to the tower." Darcy ran a hand tiredly over her face. "How are we going to do this?"

Jane gave Darcy a once-over, studying her young protege. "Hmm, do you want to call and talk to them yourself? Or would you prefer that I explain the situation to them?"

"Ugh," Darcy said, "I'd probably be completely incoherent and just end up messily crying on the phone. I feel all shaky and upset. Maybe I could try later, but ...."

"-but you might be worse then—yeah, I know," Jane said, nodding. "So I'm offering to call for you and explain the situation."

Darcy nodded weakly with a sigh. "Yeah ... that's probably best." She sighed again. "This is all going to really suck, isn't it?"

Jane's lips twitched upwards into a smile. "Well, not _all_ of it," she said, though she didn't bother to explain that sentence any further, quickly changing the subject to which of Darcy's two mates she should call first.

Darcy's first instinct was to call Natasha, since she'd known Natasha longer, trusted her more, and generally felt more comfortable around her—but Maria had more resources and control over her own time, being the assistant director of SHIELD.

"I still can't believe one of your mates is the assistant director of SHIELD," Jane said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Potential mate," Darcy corrected. "It's not like we're actively dating or anything."

" _Yet_ ," Jane added, and Darcy slapped her friend lightly on the arm. "Don't get me wrong, I love Thor—but Maria Hill is _hot_ , and I'm so impressed with your self-control that you haven't already climbed that."

Darcy flushed and slapped Jane's arm again. "Stop that. You know why I haven't done that—because ...," Darcy trailed off, making a gesture that included Darcy's current situation.

"Well okay, yes, I suppose in your case that's understandable, but also she's still hot and that still requires impressive self-control."

"Yep that's me," Darcy replied flippantly, "known for my impressive self-control—it's even my middle name."

Jane giggled, then got back down to business. Both of the two women agreed that Maria would probably be able to get help to them more easily, but Darcy didn't have her personal cell number—Natasha did though. Darcy pulled open her messaging app to find a whole slew of unanswered messages that she'd been ignoring while she tried to find her supplements and just deal with everything.

> Darcy: heeeeeey
> 
> Nat: darcy  
>  Nat: are you ok?
> 
> Darcy: yes im fine, sorry  
>  Darcy: shit kinda hit the fan so to speak
> 
> Nat: and you're sure you're ok?
> 
> Darcy: well  
>  Darcy: there is something i need
> 
> Nat: tell me and I'll get it
> 
> Darcy: i need marias personal cell number
> 
> Nat: <contact sent>  
>  Nat: why do you need her personal cell?  
>  Nat: you have her work cell don't you?
> 
> Darcy: yeah, but ... i dont want to talk on her work line
> 
> Nat: darcy, is something wrong?
> 
> Darcy: yeah, all of my life
> 
> Nat: darcy
> 
> Darcy: i know i know, ill tell u later  
>  Darcy: lemme call maria first  
>  Darcy: ttyl
> 
> Nat: ok  
>  Nat: and keep in touch from now on as much as you can  
>  Nat: or I'm coming down there to find you

Darcy blew out a relieved breath. "Well, that wasn't exactly fantastic, but at least I've got Maria's number now." Darcy stared at the number on her phone.

Jane looked at her, then asked, "Do you want me to call?"

Darcy sighed. "I should probably at least start the call and then maybe I can escape after that, because she might not know who you are. At least with me she'll recognize my voice." Darcy blew out another breath, then thumbed the dial button.

The phone rang for an uncomfortably long time, and then it picked up with what Darcy immediately recognized as Maria's voice. "Darcy?" Maria's voice sounded worried, even with just one word.

"Oh, hi, uh, yeah—uh, you had my number stored in your phone?"

"Of course, I have your number stored. You're m-" and Maria stopped, and Darcy guessed that she was going to say 'my mate' but changed tracks quickly, "- very important to me."

"But we haven't talked on this number before?"

"No, but I wanted to know and be ready in case you called me on this line instead of my work one." Before Darcy could question this further, Maria interrupted. "Darcy, is something wrong?"

"Wow, do I really sound bad enough that that's the first thing everyone asks me?"

"Darcy," Maria said seriously, obviously wanting to cut to the point.

"Ok yes, I uh, look ... I need your help, but ... can we talk privately on this? Right now? I didn't want to talk on your SHIELD phone, and I don't know if you're in a place where someone can overhear our conversation."

"Yes, just one second," Maria said, and Darcy heard the phone muffle, and what sounded like people talking, and then Maria came back on the line, and there was distinctly less background noise on the call now. "Okay, we can talk privately now."

"And SHIELD isn't recording anything we say?"

"No, I've disabled all SHIELD monitoring."

"Okay," Darcy said, and blew out a breath. "Okay."

"Darcy-," Maria started to say.

"No, shhh, give me a sec, I'm trying not to panic," Darcy said, cutting her off. She breathed deeply in an out for a minute. Jane rubbed Darcy's arm comfortingly, but didn't say anything. Maria mercifully also kept quiet.

"Okay ... okay. Now, I don't know what's possible, but ... I talked to Jane and ... okay, what I need is a way to get out of here and get back to Stark Tower without anyone seeing or interacting with me at all, or at least as minimally as possible, and Jane suggested I call you and Natasha for help."

Maria waited for a few beats after Darcy finished speaking. "You need to be evacuated?" she asked to confirm.

"Yes that, evacuated, and quickly, and ... look. I want to explain what's going on, and tell you everything—Jane's convinced me that I should tell you everything—but I'm ... I can't say it or I'll probably end up a blubbering mess just crying into the phone, so I'm going to have Jane explain the situation to you, and I'm going to go take a shower while she does it. ... Okay?"

"Okay," Maria said, without hesitation.

Darcy was a little thrown by how quickly Maria accepted this, and tried to regain her equilibrium. "Oh ... yes, okay. Sorry, I just ... thought you were going to question me or ... something."

"Well, if Jane wants to give me an explanation, I'll go with that—I'd rather you try to tell me what you can yourself once you're here and I can hold you."

Darcy choked back a sob—she so desperately wanted Maria to hold her, too. "Okay, you can't say things like that right now or I'll cry, so I'm going to pass the phone to Jane," she said in a shaky tone. Darcy pulled the phone away from her ear and held it out to Jane, saying, "Okay Jane, you're it."

Jane smiled wryly, shaking her head, and took the phone. As she said hello, Darcy fled to the bathroom to start the shower before she heard something that made her break down again.

====

"Hello, Assistant Director Hill?" Jane asked, watching Darcy flee into the bathroom with concern.

"Yes, hello, Dr. Foster."

"Please just call me Jane."

"Then just call me Maria."

Jane smiled. "Deal. Alright, I'm sure you're feeling very confused right now, and honestly I think Darcy is too, but she trusts you and so I'm going to try and give you an overview of what's going on—but just take everything we talk about in this conversation as highly private and something that you shouldn't disclose to anyone else. Darcy was very clear that that was important to her—in fact, it took quite a bit of convincing just to have her tell me and you anything at all."

"Agreed, not a word will pass my lips."

"Ok, good. Now ... uh, I'm not exactly sure how to bring this up, so I'm just going to be blunt—Darcy isn't an alpha. She's an omega that's been using a supplement that acts as a suppressant and scent modifier so she could pass as an alpha. And I don't know if she told you about this already, but her luggage got lost, and in the process Darcy lost all of her supply of her supplement. She hasn't been able to find any to replace it, and I only just found out about the problem now after Darcy said she was sick and couldn't come into the conference. I came back to find the hotel room smelling like pre-heat omega and Darcy locked in the bathroom. I convinced her to tell me what's going on, then I convinced her that we should call her mates, and after this I'm going to go see about getting an emergency suppressant from the pharmacy, but I wanted to talk to you first about what we can do to help her so I know what strength I should go ask for."

Maria was quiet for a few moments after Jane stopped talking—which was entirely understandable, as Jane had just dropped a lot of really shocking information onto the assistant director in a very short period of time. Then Maria cleared her throat, and asked, "How close to her heat is she?"

"Honestly, I can't really tell, but very close. I'd say about twelve hours, maybe a little more or a little less. She smells very strong to me already, and she's obviously more emotional right now, but the increased emotional instability could be caused by her panic over this situation, and her smell could be strong because that's just how strong she normally smells when not on suppressants. I've never smelled her true scent before this, so I have no metric to gauge it. One thing I do know is that she's still very coherent if she's actually very close to her heat—if her heat were really only twelve hours away, she should be high as a kite, and she seems to me to just have a good buzz."

"Okay."

"So, what can we do?"

Jane could hear typing noises in the background. "Well, SHIELD does have emergency extraction procedures for in-heat omegas or omegas otherwise in need, so we could use that. We even have protocols for extremely high privacy, where not even the assisting SHIELD agents would know who it was they were transporting. I can have a team there in probably ... just under three hours."

"I think that timeline works. Darcy's already panicking, and I think it'd be best to get her out of here and back home as soon as possible. How long of a suppressant should I get? I mean, until she can be safely inside one of Stark's heat-rooms."

"I'm estimating five or six hours till she'd be clear. How strong are those suppressants? Is it better to over- or underestimate?"

"Pretty damn strong—I've had to use them before, and they make you pretty loopy. They'll hold the heat off and mitigate most of her heat-scent, but the side-effect is that she won't be able to have any sex of any kind until it's totally gone from her system, no matter how much she wants to. That'll be a problem because the suppressants don't actually quash your libido, or they do so very minimally, at least in my experience."

"Understood—in that case we should probably err on the side of underestimating."

"That's my thinking as well."

"Very good." Maria's typing could be heard in the background. "I think I probably should get off the phone now to set that in motion. Please send me a message with your number so I can keep you apprised of the status of our extraction, and so you can let me know if your or Darcy's situation materially changes during the next couple of hours. I'll be directly overseeing this operation and will be able to make any changes needed."

"Okay, perfect. Thank you, and I'll let you know."

The two women said their goodbyes and hung up. Jane went into the bathroom—where the shower was still running—to check on Darcy.

"Darcy?" Jane called, opening up the bathroom door and, steam billowing out, poking her head inside. "How are you doing in here?"

"I'm ... as to be expected? Actually though, this shower really does feel nice."

Jane smiled and stepped into the bathroom, partially shutting the door behind her. "I know, right? It just feels soooooooo good when you're in pre-heat. For a while you don't even feel like you're in pre-heat at all."

"Is that why you suggested taking a shower?"

"Yep—it never fails to make me feel better."

Darcy laughed. "Well that's good to know." Darcy paused and then exhaled forcefully. "Ok, tell me the damage—how did it go?"

"Everything's all planned out. Your mate Maria is going to be here in three hours to get you out, and then you should be back home and safe another two to three hours after that, and I'm just coming in here to see what else you need before I go pick up your emergency suppressant."

"Okay good," Darcy said in obvious relief, and Jane could see her slumping against the shower wall in relief, although nearly everything was fogged over. "That makes me feel so much better now."

Jane chuckled. "I bet. Alright, tell me what else you need, so I can go get that."

"Ummmm, I'm kinda hungry now, but I'd rather you just picked up the suppressants and got back here as soon as possible. I can call in food and have it delivered, and the hotel staff can bring it up and leave it at the room door for me, so I don't have to worry about needing to interact with the deliveryperson to pay. It could even get back here before you do."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Alright, I'm off to go do that, and please get out of the shower before you permanently wrinkle."

"Hey, it's free unlimited hot water—I'm going to take advantage of it while I can."

"Well at least take a break to get out and order the food, then you can get back in."

"Oh, wait—get me my phone and give it to me. It's waterproof up to a meter so I can order while I'm _still in the shower_. Isn't technology great?"

Jane rolled her eyes, but did as Darcy asked and returned to hand her the phone through the shower door. "On a serious note, don't stay in there too long. I don't want to come back here and have you passed out in the shower and your mate up in arms and angry at me."

"Okay okay, I'll get out soon."

====

Darcy ordered from a pizza place down the street, and since they said it'd be twenty minutes, she languished in the shower for fifteen of those minutes, finally shutting the shower off and stepping out into the thoroughly steamed bathroom. She began toweling off and then got a notification on her phone—checking it, she saw that the delivery was already here.

Hurriedly wrapping the towel around herself, Darcy went to check the peephole in the hotel door—not seeing anyone, she opened it up, and smiled when she saw that her pizza was left in front of the door just as she requested. Darcy was just about to bend down to pick it up, when movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention.

"Sorry!" a harried-looking delivery woman said, running up to the door. "I was told to drop it off here but I only just realized I forgot to drop off the napkins, so I came back t-" The delivery woman stopped her speech with a jerk and held still, arm still outstretched with the napkins.

Darcy could tell what was coming, so she reached out to take the napkins, saying politely, "Thank you."

The delivery woman blinked, and said dazedly, "You're welcome." Then she shook her head quickly and asked, "Is there anything else I can get you? Do you want me to carry these inside for you?"

Darcy was just trying to figure out how to pick up the pizza boxes without losing her towel—she could feel it starting to open in the back when she had made to bend forward earlier—so she considered this option, with the deliverywoman waiting anxiously. After a few moments, she held up a single warning finger, and said firmly, "No funny business."

The delivery woman—a beta, Darcy could tell—immediately nodded her head. "Yes, ma'am. No funny business," she agreed eagerly.

Darcy held the door open wider with a wary look, holding onto her towel with her other hand. The beta wasted no time in scooping up the pizza plus the extra bag sitting on top, then walked into the hotel room. Darcy followed her in, pointing where to set down the food. Once the delivery woman had done so, she turned around to look at Darcy, again looking a little bit dazed and awed.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" She paused and added significantly. "Anything at all?"

Darcy was tempted to make a quip about the beta dropping to her knees and sucking Darcy off—and dear lord, where had _that_ idea come from??—but she couldn't be sure this girl wouldn't take it as a command and do just that, and then she'd have to explain to Jane exactly what had happened to make it so Darcy's first time was with the pizza delivery girl. That wouldn't be fun.

Instead, Darcy said, "No, that's it. Thank you."

"Alright," the beta said, and headed for the door. Just before she reached it, she turned around and pulled out one of her business cards. "Oh, and if you realize you forgot to order something, or even if you just wanted someone to run down to the corner mart to get you supplies, you can call me up. For anything." The delivery woman scribbled something down on the back and then set the card down on the small table by the door. "Have a good evening, miss," she called, and then left.


	2. Warm Skin

Jane opened the hotel room door and stepped inside only to be hit by a wave of heat scent. She staggered against the door slightly, recovering herself, and then she noticed a bright card sitting on the table by the door.

"Who's Claire?" Jane asked, after flipping the card over and seeing the scrawled phone number and name. Of _course_ , Darcy would end up getting a girl's number just by ordering pizza.

"Hmm?" Darcy asked. Jane walked out of the entry way towards the beds, and found Darcy sprawled out completely naked on her bed with an open pizza box on her chest—her mouth was full of pizza and Jane had to wait a few seconds before she could respond.

"This business card by the door," Jane clarified.

"Oh, that was the delivery woman," Darcy said, uninterested in anything except her pizza, and took another overly large bite.

"Do I even want to know how she gave you her number?" When Darcy shook her head, Jane smiled wryly. "Feeling hungry, huh?" Darcy nodded. "Well, that'll continue until your heat ends, basically, although you won't notice it when you're _busy with other things_." Jane said the last few words with extra emphasis and wiggled her eyebrows salaciously.

Darcy looked up with a hungry look, though not for food.

"Well shit, are you already in the horny phase? We might have to give you this suppressant early then."

====

As soon as she got off the phone with Jane, Maria sent in the extraction order for an in-heat omega, and then promptly called up the lead agent on her phone.

"Hill, what's going on?" Natasha asked as soon as she picked up.

"I can't tell you that over the phone, come to my office ASAP. You'll be in the air as soon as I brief you in-person. Don't bother prepping before liftoff—you'll have two hours in the air to do so, and it's an undercover mission anyway, so no tactical suit is required."

"Just street clothes, got it," Natasha said. "Grabbing my go bag and then I'm on my way. ETA eight minutes."

"Acknowledged," Maria said, and then hung up the phone. She contacted the pilot and one of the flight-prep teams to prepare the modular heat bay in the mission quinjet. They each gave her time estimates and acknowledged their orders, and by then Maria had a knock at her office door.

"Enter."

Natasha opened the door and came in, setting herself down in the chair in front of Maria's desk and letting the door swing shut behind her. "You're not usually my handler on missions," Natasha said by way of greeting.

Maria nodded. "They usually don't want mates to be each other's handlers, but this is a special situation and I need to send you in specifically." Maria paused and took a breath.

Natasha's eyebrow quirked upwards.

"So, this is not on the mission reports or description at all, and I was told all of it in the strictest confidence, so I expected you to keep this to yourself—not even SHIELD should know this, because it's about Darcy."

Natasha's outwardly bored demeanor instantly shifted, and she leaned forward intently in her chair.

"This was explicitly shared with me under the condition that I not share it with anyone, but since you're going to find out the moment you land, I'm telling you now so you'll be prepared, and also Darcy implied that she intended to tell you herself." Hill took a quick breath. "Okay, I know, and you know, that Darcy has some kind of ... issues from her past, and because of this she doesn't want to let anyone close. Well, Jane has apparently found out why that was, and convinced Darcy to share it, so I'm just going to dive in." Pausing for a heartbeat to let the spy in front of her absorb what she said, Maria continued. "Darcy is not actually an alpha—she's an omega that's been taking some kind of suppressant and scent modifier to pass as an alpha, and apparently no one, not even Jane, was in the know about this. Jane only found out when Darcy unexpectedly lost access to her suppressant and ended up going into heat."

Natasha blinked several times in quick succession. "Wow," she said.

"My thoughts exactly. So that's why you're the assigned agent on this mission, and that's why I'm overseeing it—I won't trust anyone else in either role. Jane is taking care of Darcy on the other end, and I need you to be in the jet to pick her up and stay with her until she can get into a heat room at Stark Tower. Jane is going to set her up with a suppressant that should last until she's in a heat room, but we both agreed that given the side-effects of the suppressant that it would be better to underestimate the duration—so be prepared for at least some of the trip to be while Darcy's heat is not suppressed."

Natasha shivered. "You're having me locked in an enclosed space with an in-heat omega who is my mate? I don't know if I should be thankful or angry."

Maria's lips twitched upwards. "You can be both, if you want—but I certainly am not putting anyone else in there with Darcy but you."

Natasha nodded seriously. "Agreed—I don't want anyone else in there either. I wouldn't mind you in there, but I don't have the rank to oversee this mission."

Nodding, Maria said, "Exactly. Any questions or requests before I put you on that plan? The ETA for takeoff was twenty minutes, so we have less than half that to go."

Natasha listed off a few questions that she could think of that Hill filled her in on, and then it was time for Natasha to head up to the hangar. Before she could go, Maria pulled her in for a quick kiss. "Good luck," Maria said, with feeling.

The spy smiled, saying, "I'll bring her back safe."

Maria nodded and let her go.

====

Natasha paced in the tiny heat compartment again, feeling restless. She had of course been on lots of missions—even omega evacuation missions since she was a beta and considered less of a risk—but it wasn't often that she had to help evacuate her own mate who was also in-heat. Natasha hadn't gotten many of the details, but from what she understood Darcy was in pre-heat very close to heat, which was just about the most dangerous time of an omega's heat. Normally the Russian was calm and collected in pre- and post-mission flights, but now she felt restless. She was sure it was her inner instincts preparing for her omega mate's heat, plus a dash of overprotective mate instincts. This heat compartment wasn't very big and she could have moved into the larger cabin outside the compartment to have her pacing less restricted, but Natasha wanted to contain her own scent in this place so as to make Darcy feel more comfortable when she got on. The former assassin reached the end of the tiny space and turned back to pace towards the other end, when her comms beeped, the pilot letting her know they were only minutes out from their destination.

Natasha instantly shed her anxiety and fell into mission mode as if she hadn't just been pacing restlessly in the compartment. She sat in one of the jump seats and strapped in as the quinjet prepared to land, doing her usual pre-launch check of her gear. She didn't have her tactical suit, which meant that everything was a little more difficult to access, but it also meant Natasha was invisible. When she was in her Avengers gear, everyone stared at her wherever she went and it made Natasha vaguely uncomfortable—just another remnant of her time as a spy, where standing out meant death, quick and simple.

She settled her thoughts as the jet settled to the ground. They were supposed to be landing on a rooftop, and Darcy and Jane should already be located onsite. During the flight, Natasha had been in somewhat constant communication with either Jane or Darcy, so she was fairly certain they'd be up on the roof already. The pilot gave the all-clear, and Natasha exited the compartment, and then the jet. Glancing around the rooftop, Natasha found that Darcy and Jane were _not_ actually there, and so started making her way towards the roof access door.

Before she got there, the door swung open and the two omegas came out.

"Oh my god, those stairs are death," Darcy panted, bending over and resting her hands on her knees.

"The elevator doesn't go up to the roof, my assumption that it did was wrong. Sorry about that," Jane said to Natasha by way of explanation. She was panting pretty heavily too.

"Ha," Darcy said dismissively. "That wasn't even the problem—there's no access to the roof from the regular floors. We had to go all the way down to the bottom of the building and come back up. Who even designs a building that way?" she asked rhetorically.

"Darcy," Natasha said, as soon as she could get a word in edgewise, and Darcy let Natasha pull her into a tight hug. "Are you alright?" Natasha pulled back to scan Darcy's form for injuries or anything wrong. Darcy looked uninjured, but Natasha thought she looked a little flushed—which could possibly be from the stairs, or it could be a sign of her heat advancing.

"Much better now that you're here," Darcy said, leaning back in to nuzzle Natasha's ear and cheek. Natasha could feel the omega's warm breath on her skin as Darcy exhaled. "You smell nice," she said.

That comment reminded the spy how quickly they needed to evacuate, and Natasha snapped back into mission mode. "We should get you on the jet and in the air." Turning to Jane, she asked, "Are you coming with us, Dr. Foster? I can help you with bags if you need help."

Jane shook her head. "I have another day of conference to go, and besides being stuck in an enclosed space with Darcy while she's a step away from full heat is _not_ my idea of a good time. I'm already in danger of going into a sympathetic heat just from the couple hours I've spent with her already."

Natasha nodded and turned to guide Darcy onto the plane, when Jane stopped her again.

"Just as a warning, they didn't have five-hour suppressants, so Darcy only has a three-hour duration one. And there's roughly," Jane paused, looking at her watch, "an hour and a half left."

Natasha's eyes widened in alarm. "Thank you for letting me know—we'd better be off then."

They made their very brief goodbyes, and Natasha ushered Darcy onto the quinjet and into the heat compartment, closing the door behind them. Luckily, it was easy for Natasha to get Darcy to go where they needed to, because she tried to stay as close as possible to Natasha at all times, so all Natasha had to do was move away to get Darcy to follow. Natasha gave the pilot the all-clear as soon as she had the door to the heat compartment closed, and then she guided Darcy to a jump seat.

For the first half of the flight, Darcy only wanted to lean against Natasha and breathe in the beta's scent, which unexpectedly made Natasha feel proud and useful—and that was a ridiculous feeling, because Natasha had literally just flown halfway across the country to rescue her mate. Ridiculous or not however, Natasha thoroughly enjoyed it, and found herself smiling the entire time that Darcy had her head tucked against the Russian for comfort. After a while though, just resting her nose against Natasha's neck was no longer enough, and Darcy started pressing soft kisses to Natasha's neck. Gradually the kisses became more lingering, and then she started grazing her teeth against Natasha's skin.

"Darcy," Natasha said in warning, finding that her voice had turned husky from her mate's attentions.

Darcy shivered against her at the sound of Natasha's voice, but it luckily made her stop biting. "Yeah?" Darcy asked, and the omega's voice was an octave lower than normal and made Natasha squirm pleasantly.

"No teeth until after we land," she said.

Rumbling a bit in disapproval, Darcy returned to kissing Natasha's neck, with Natasha only needing to remind the omega a couple times about the ban on teeth. Knowing that they still had a half an hour to go at least, Natasha thumbed a message out with one hand, while simultaneously trying to keep a handle on her mate.

> Nat: i hope youre ready for this  
>  Nat: her supps ar alredy wearing of
> 
> Maria: Okay, ETA approx 40 min.
> 
> Nat: cant this thing go fasterr  
>  Nat: shes already trying to suck hickies nto my neck  
>  Nat: at this rate were gong to christen this jet
> 
> Maria: Your pilot has been approved for a speed increase.  
>  Maria: New ETA 25 min.
> 
> Nat: thank fuckn god  
>  Nat: if ur not at tower when we land i will murder u

By the time the pilot sent the pre-landing notification, Natasha was panting and squirming in her jump seat. Darcy was also red-faced and panting, and trying to explore all of her mate's skin that was available to her with little noises of arousal and pleasure. Natasha was so turned on already that she might climax just walking to the elevator in her jeans. Finally, they landed, and Natasha was just waiting for the clearance to leave the heat compartment when the door to the compartment made a noise—the doorknob turning—and then began to swing open. Within a fraction of a second Natasha had one of her sidearms in her hand and aimed at the door, arm steady despite it being her less-dominant hand and the fact that she had an in-heat omega nibbling on her neck. Natasha breathed a sigh of relief when it was Maria who stepped inside.

Natasha was mildly amused when she saw Maria's reaction to the scents that had built up in the compartment, staggering against the door and raising a hand to her nose, eyes wide.

"Baby, let's get your harness off," Natasha said as she turned to the omega still attacking her neck, stowing her sidearm and helping Darcy disentangle herself from the seat straps. Maria came to help, and Darcy looked up at the alpha with a wide smile.

"Maria!" Darcy exclaimed with joy. Then without hesitation, she reached her arms up around Maria's neck and then pulled herself up, wrapping her legs around the assistant director's waist. Maria seemed totally stunned, but the alpha's eyes closed involuntarily when Darcy then nosed under Maria's chin until the alpha lifted her neck up, and then Darcy pressed her lips to Maria's neck and growled.

Since Maria appeared to be temporarily offline, Natasha took hold of the alpha's shoulders and guided her out of the compartment and down the ramp off the quinjet. Natasha confirmed with JARVIS that the way was clear and that heat protocols were in place for their floor, and then took Darcy and Maria down to the apartment she shared with Clint. The archer had offered to let them use the apartment, despite not knowing any of the specifics, since he was going to be leaving on a week-long mission in two days. He'd already pulled out his gear and was in temp quarters on one of the new experimental hellicarriers.

They exited the elevator, Darcy still attached to Maria's neck and growling—probably sucking a mark into Maria's neck, Natasha guessed, but the omega could also be just biting, since technically they had landed and using teeth was allowed now. JARVIS unlocked the door for them, and Natasha pushed her mates inside, shutting the door and locking it fully. She then wasted no time taking them both into the bedroom.

"Darcy, baby, are you hungry? Do you need anything?" Natasha asked softly as she lowered both alpha and omega onto the bed in a sitting position.

The omega only growled a little louder in response, instantly taking advantage of the new position to scoot a little higher onto Maria and straddle her. Natasha knew that it was well past time for Darcy's emergency suppressant to have worn off, and simply went to stripping all her clothes off as quickly as she could, and then grabbed her strap-on from her nightstand drawer. She secured it, and then set herself to gently coaxing Darcy's clothes off.

The boots were easiest, and then Darcy lifted herself up helpfully and pushed her legs out straight to assist with the removal of the pants, also happening to push Maria down onto the bed flat on her back. Darcy's underwear were completely soaked through, and her pants as well, and pulling them off made both Darcy and Natasha moan. Maria was still held mostly immobile by the hold Darcy maintained on the alpha's neck, but the alpha wrapped her arms around Darcy at the sound.

The jacket and shirt were more difficult—the first one meant both Maria and Darcy had to release their grip on the other, and the last one required that Darcy let go of her grip on Maria's neck. At first she didn't want to, but when Natasha tugged harder at Darcy's shirt, the omega finally relented, and Natasha saw that the mark on Maria's neck was a combination bite mark and hickie.

As soon as Maria was released, the alpha growled and surged upwards into the omega over her, pressing kisses all over Darcy's chest and stomach, even as Natasha was lifting Darcy's shirt up and over her head. The bra Maria took care of herself, practically ripping it off in her haste to get to Darcy's breasts, immediately latching onto a nipple and sucking once it was freed.

"Maria, strip," Natasha commanded huskily, pushing Darcy further onto the bed with gentle hands on the omega's hips. Darcy walked on all fours with the movement, although reluctant to step away from Maria's lips. They only managed the move when Maria stopped sucking on Darcy's breasts to pull her jacket and shirt off.

Natasha could see the wetness dripping down between Darcy's legs, and knew that she herself was too turned on from Darcy's attentions on the jet to want to wait, so Natasha promptly lined the tip of her strap-on to Darcy's entrance and pushed inside. Both she and Darcy gasped at the movement, and Natasha started a gentle rhythm, pushing only slightly further in on each stroke. Darcy might be in heat, but it was still the omega's first time, and Natasha wanted to avoid hurting her mate.

By now Maria was fully undressed, and she wiggled her way underneath Darcy on her back, returning her attention to Darcy's breasts. Darcy arched her back and moaned, and Natasha grabbed Darcy's hips with her hands and squeezed. The omega's hands wrapped around Maria and tried to pull the alpha further up onto the bed, but finally Darcy gave up and moved herself downward instead so she could get her teeth on Maria's neck again. This pushed Darcy much further and harder onto Natasha's strap-on, and the beta moaned loudly at the sight, and the way the base of the toy pushed back into her clit.

Maria went still again at the feel of the omega's teeth on her neck, tilting her head to give her mate better access to her neck, but Maria's hands took up position at Darcy's breasts and began gently kneading them, and fingering Darcy's nipples. Darcy moaned and arched at the different sensations and shifted her teeth around, seeking the best-smelling spot on Maria's neck, and the alpha growled lowly under her, opening herself more. After a few nips and growls, Darcy found the right spot, right over the scent glands where a mating bite would go, and bit down hard enough to leave a mark, but not break the skin. Maria cried out softly, holding still except for the continued movement of her hands.

Natasha found herself working up towards climax really quickly, the noises from her mates only making that happen faster. She adjusted her position so her strokes would hit Darcy's g-spot, and when Darcy started moaning loudly into Maria's neck, she knew she'd hit it. The position also made Natasha rub in the right spots, which was not necessarily a good thing because she wanted Darcy to come first, but Darcy seemed to be on the edge of coming already so Natasha didn't want to move off that spot.

Darcy was making wordless noises into Maria's neck, and Natasha had almost worked the strap-on all the way in now. "God, Darcy, I'm gonna go all the way in," Natasha panted. Darcy nodded her head rapidly against Maria's neck, and that was all the confirmation Natasha needed. With a few more strokes, Natasha pushed the strap-on all the way inside to the base, where Natasha could feel Darcy's warm skin against hers, and Darcy mewled. With that, the last bit of control Natasha had melted away, and she found herself toppling over the edge loudly, trying to keep her strokes firm and even.

Mid-orgasm, Natasha heard Darcy's cries increase rapidly in pitch and felt the omega clenching rhythmically around her toy. Moments later, Natasha heard Maria cry out and warm wetness splashed across her hand on Darcy's hip and her leg. The Russian kept thrusting, the orgasms of her two mates renewing and prolonging Natasha's own.

Natasha's arms felt boneless, and she slumped down onto Darcy's back, who melted down as well, half onto Maria and half on the bed. Now that her head was closer, Natasha could see what had sent Maria to climax—Darcy had bit down fully into the alpha's neck, giving Maria a mating bite. Darcy was now laving the spot with her tongue, bleary and uncoordinated in her post-orgasm buzz, but relentless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for this alternate situation. I didn't want to do too much with it, since I still have the main story Making Soft Sounds to work on, and honestly it all started to feel like I was just repeating myself by the end. Still working on the other alternate fic, which will be posted up soon.


End file.
